AustLit

'1938. Europe burns. Young Jewish couple Hans and Alice Herskovics mount a dangerous escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna.

'Half a world away, after a lifetime advocating for the rights of his own people, Yorta Yorta leader William Cooper leads a deputation to the front door of Melbourne's German Consulate. His message - the persecution of the Jewish people must stop.

'Nearly eighty years later, two playwrights come together on page and stage to explore the legacy of their ancestors in a unique cross-cultural collaboration.

'What makes a hero?

Who can pull off the best 80's flashback?

Whose dog is smartest?

Whose oppression largest?

'From Austria to Australia, from a Deb Ball in Benalla to a Brighton Bat Mitzvah, Bright World is a genre-bending trip into the heart of our history-making.' (Production summary)

'Wolf and Clara, Max and Lotte.

'These guys know how to costume party.

'Clara is a butterfly and a singer.

'Lotte a witch.

'Max a king amongst men.

'Wolf, well, a bit of a Wolf.

'Refugees with no homeland to return to, they ‘party’ in an effort to band together, maintain hope, and save their faltering sanity. Caught in a cruel limbo between past and present and striving to find their place in a new land, they fall under the increasingly sinister surveillance of The Suits as they attempt to gain safety and security.

The Mesh is a haunting and timely allegory filled with dancing, original songs and a rich musical score. Inspired by the story of Elise Hearst’s grandparents, Austrian Jews who fled Europe after the German occupation, daringly escaping and making the long journey to begin a new life in Melbourne. St Kilda-based Hearst is one of the most interesting young playwriting voices in Australian theatre, whose previous work includes The Sea Project (Griffin Theatre) and Dirtyland (The New Theatre).' (Production summary)

'Things are washing up on the shore: suitcases, spectacles, hair - and then Eva. She has lost all but the memory of her name and how she takes her tea. And she's missing a finger.

'When Bob finds Eva on the beach it's not long before she is in his kitchen and he's falling in love. But Eva is haunted by a past she can't remember. Who is she and why does she scream in the night? When the mysterious rogue Maciek appears, Bob is terrified he'll steal Eva away. Eva is terrified of what he may reveal.

''The Sea Project' is an evocative, unique story of migration, memory and desire. It reunites two of Australia's hottest new theatre talents, writer Elise Hearst and director Paige Rattray, who first teamed up for 2011's explosive 'Dirtyland'.

(Source: Griffin Theatre website)

'Billy and Paula have lost their mother. And now they're lost too. Reason and logic have disappeared out the window, around the corner and deep into the woods. Life without Mum is weird and nonsensical, and grief has thrown these two grown-ups back into the world of their strange, strange childhood. The two attempt to find definition in each other, in their history together, and in the re-living of their past, as they rebuild, from the chaos of loss, their own selves.

'Sandwiches is the inaugural production by The Melbourne Town Players. It is an experiment in theatrical composition that smashes two strongly contrasting writing styles up against each other, and in so doing, reveals the very distinct inner and outer workings of grief on the psyche. It draws together a beautiful, haunting, and often hilarious world that feeds on the simultaneous terror and comfort of childhood, and the bizarre fallout that the recently departed can sometimes leave behind for us.

'Part Hansel and Gretel, part Alice in Wonderland, part Lynchian nightmare, Sandwiches takes you along the garden path, into the undergrowth, down the rabbit hole, and into the strange, dark, and silly world of Billy and Paula.'

Source: Australian Stage website, http://www.australianstage.com.au/
Sighted: 28/01/2009

'In July 2006 I was reading the Guardian when I came across an image of "Christina's World", a painting by American artist Andrew Wyeth - it depicts a girl sitting in the middle of a field facing a house in the distance. It triggered something and I began writing Dirtyland with a field at its physical and emotional centre. In the play, the field becomes the site of a massacre and its action takes place in the aftermath.

About the same time, I had been reading about a massacre that occurred at Jedwabne, Poland in 1941. While the play is informed by this event, I made the decision to fictionalise the setting. Poland, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan, Australia. Massacre is a cruel and inexplicable phenomenon which recurs in time and place. While the setting is fictional, living in Europe while writing this work had an inevitable impact. Europe is the birthplace of a history (and of a violence) that constitutes a core part of my world view. I am fascinated by the lingering impact war leaves behind; the silences between generations, the joy of first love, the meaning of exile, the relentlessness of desire, and the moral dilemmas of survival. Most of all I am compelled by the human determination to survive at any cost - and determination is what binds these elements together.' - Elise Hearst

Source: www.nationalplayfestival.org.au/ (Sighted 20/01/2009).